These radio programs emerged as the fruit of the creative residency that brought together four sound artists – Thelmo Cristovam (BR), EdBrass (BR), Rodrigo Ramos (BR) and Dave Phillips (Switzerland), from the sound material captured in 2006 by Thelmo Cristovam and in 2011 by Dave Phillips, both in the Amazon rainforest. The sound records of 2006, digitized and restored in the first phase of this project by Thelmo Cristovam, now resurface revisited and reimagined in the creation of the pieces in this series.
Amazonia Revisited is a project realized by CMC (Contemporary Music Cycle – Salvador – Brazil), in partnership with IOIC, with the support of Pro-Helvetia South America (CH), and aims to create new medium and long-term means of exchange between creators from Brazil and Switzerland, through a series of actions such as sound collection restoration, virtual residencies, shows of creative processes, phonographic and audiovisual releases, around sound art and its various modalities.
These radio shows emerged as a result of the creative residency that brings together four sound artists – Thelmo Cristovam (BR), EdBrass (BR), Rodrigo Ramos (BR) and Dave Phillips (Switzerland), from the sound material captured in 2006, by Thelmo Cristovam, and in 2011, by Dave Phillips, both in the Amazon rainforest. The sound records from 2006, digitized and restored in the first phase of this project by Thelmo Cristovam, now resurface revisited and reimagined in the creation of the pieces in this series.
Programs: Program 1: Day & Night | 54 min (2 x 27) – by Thelmo Cristovam
Program 2: Memória das Águas 1 & 2 | 54 min (2 x 27) – by Edbrass Brasil
Program 3: The strong wind will bring down our houses & kéro, kéro, kéro (hurry, hurry, hurry)| 54 min (2 x 27) – by Rodrigo Ramos
Program 4: Solos and Amazon Mutations | 54 min (2 x 27) – by Dave Phillips
Description of the programs:
Program 1: Day & Night | 54 min (2 x 27) – by Thelmo Cristovam Two parts, day and night, based on Thelmo’s field recordings without manipulation, using only minimal layers and editing. the first part, day, is composed exclusively of daytime recordings, in the second part, the same thing, with nighttime recordings. Additional daytime and nighttime recordings from Dave Phillips’ sources were selected in collaboration.
Program 2: Water Memory 1 & 2 | 54 min (2 x 27) – by Edbrass Brasil This is a fictional « memory book » constructed from the shared field recordings. The first part uses the work of purifying water sources in the Amazon of 2022. In the foreground, listen to the sounds produced by the machine during the purification process, which, is subdivided into several other steps, the understanding of which escapes us. The collaborators were then asked to submit sounds, objects or textures that reinforce the idea of an unknown technology.
In the second part, besides the « water purification machine », the idea of displacement enters. Movement, escape on foot, in boats, on motors, etc. At some points the mood is even denser, there is persecution, small groups are displaced, moving through the forest. The collaborators were then asked to submit sounds of movement, of displacement.
Program 3: The strong wind will blow our houses down & kéro, kéro, kéro (quickly, quickly, quickly)| 54 min (2 x 27) – by Rodrigo Ramos
The radio pieces made by sound artist Rodrigo Ramos during his residency in the project Amazonia Revisited. The radio pieces made by the sound artist Rodrigo Ramos during the artist residency of the project Amazonia Revisited, uses the field recordings of Thelmo Cristovam in 2006 in the surroundings of Lake Mamori, in the Brazilian state of Amazonas, and the material of Dave Phillips, collected in Challua Cocha, Rio Napo and Yasuni National Park, in the Ecuadorian Amazon, in 2011. From the artistic encounter result two 27 min works, the first: The strong wind will blow our houses down, arises from the issue of devastation of the Amazon. Mixing sounds of soundscapes (which probably no longer exist as they were at the time of capture, because of deforestation), with some lines of Cacique Raoni Metuktire, one of the main and oldest indigenous leaders, the piece sounds like a warning of what will be lost if we do not change the predatory conception of the world.
The second piece, kéro, kéro, kéro (fast, fast, fast) seeks an immersion in the forest soundscape, appreciating timbres and rhythms that multiply in the forest. Revisiting and incorporating other Amazonian sound material, I use the recordings made for the Ethno-Linguistic-Musical Record of the Tribes of the Uaupés, Içana & Cauaburia Rivers in 1961. The piece incorporates the Yapurutús flutes, used by the Tukano, Arwake and Wanana indigenous peoples. The name of the piece makes reference to the sound produced by one of these flutes, which in his transcription sounds like « kéro » (fast).
>> Program 4: Solos and Amazon Mutations | 54 min (2 x 27) – by Dave Phillips Since this project is based on collaboration, for the first part I asked each collaborator for a solo piece of 6 minutes and 45 seconds, with all the sounds coming from field recordings.
Program 4: Solos and Amazon Mutations | 54 min (2 x 27) – by Dave Phillips Since this project is based on collaboration, for the first part I asked each collaborator for a solo piece of 6 minutes and 45 seconds, with all the sounds coming from field recordings.
For the second part I refer to my idea of « mutations ». Basically this idea would like to reduce humans to the size of insects, so that we can hear their world as they hear it. Unfortunately this is impossible… these « mutations » use field recordings of non-human origin, decelerated/stretched in time and/or launched by 50 to 198%. decelerated field recordings play with time-space dimensions. Related to the size of the creatures recorded, this game arises: « how would I hear insects if I were an insect? » this quickly expands to « how would I hear/perceive the world if I were an insect (amphibian, avian etc.)? ». time-space plays with relationships and perceptions of size, speed, frequency, light, sound etc. perception changes through immersion – being part of something…. I then asked my collaborators for sounds that relate to trance states, to altered levels of consciousness. The second piece also addresses the old discussion of « do animals have culture? » To explain animal sounds primarily as territorial or to attract a sexual partner – is limited, condescending and quite anthropocentric – it is the same hierarchical thinking that leads to patriarchy, heteronormativity or racism. In return, human exceptionalism is addressed, which the latest science increasingly confirms is a myth.
These two plays celebrate the « high level of animal consciousness and culture.
